Fantasy Golf Tournament Preview- The Memorial Tournament

OVERVIEW

The unofficial kickoff of summer is here as we head to the Jack Nicklaus designed Muirfield Village Golf Club. The course was designed to look very similar to Augusta National, so there’s some crossover in who’s played well at both courses over the years (specifically Tiger Woods, Justin Rose and Rickie Fowler). The four easiest holes on the course are the Par 5’s, making Par 5 scoring a key stat this week. Ironically, when looking at Top 10 finishers over the years here they average about the same strokes gained on all holes versus par at about .15 strokes each. What that means is, instead of targeting players who accel at just Par 5’s or just Par 4’s, I think it’d be virtuous to target players who gain (even the slightest amount) of strokes on Par 3’s, Par 4’s AND Par 5’s. By doing that at the beginning of your research, I think you’ll have a unique player pool compared to the field. For One & Done leagues this week, if you haven’t burned Tiger yet, he’d probably be the best option. Deeper shots include Phil Mickelson (doesn’t have the course history to make me think he’ll be a popular play), Louis Oosthuizen (withdrew late last week which means he won’t be owned at all) or past winners Hideki Matsuyama and Bryson Dechambeau. Coming off last week’s runner-up performance, I expect Tony Finau to be a popular play in all fantasy formats.

TOURNAMENT BACKGROUND

o The Course
• Muirfield Village Golf CLub
• Par 72
• 7,400 yards
• Bentgrass greens
o Location: Dublin, OH
o Corollary Courses/Performances: Augusta National (Bentgrass greens, right to left tee shots, and overall course design)
o Past Champions:
• 2018: Bryson Dechambeau -15 in a playoff over Kyle Stanley & Byeong Hun An
• 2017: Jason Dufner -13 over Rickie Fowler & Anirban Lahiri
• 2016: William McGirt -15 in a playoff over Jon Curran
• 2015: David Lingmerth -15 in a playoff over Justin Rose
• 2014: Hideki Matsuyama -13 in a playoff over Kevin Na

KEY STATS TO TARGET

o Strong Emphasis – SG: APP, Par 5 Scoring, Birdies or Better
o Important – Scrambling, P4 Scoring 450-500y, APP 150+

Sign up for an FGI account today to see the rest of this post.